Friday, October 16, 2009

And this weekend, Capitol Hill is filled with the goodness! The 14th Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival kicks off with a bash tonight and runs through next Sunday. We're long time sponsors of the festival, and look forward to it every year, but this year...there's MORE!

Our Capitol Hill café is the official lounge of this year's festival. What does that mean? Well, two things. And they're both super terrific.

1. As our way of saying thank you to festival filmgoers, and to support the arts and the discussion thereof, we are offering a free babycake with a coffee or tea purchase to anyone with a ticket stub or festival pass. Films are screening all week at the Egyptian and over at our superfriends the Northwest Film Forum, so we really could not be better positioned as your official festival hang out. See a film. Bring your friends. Discuss over coffee and cupcakes. Perfect.

2. We are actually showing a film in our café! Yes, you read that correctly. Starting Saturday and running through the end of the festival, 13 Love Stories will be projected on the wall of our Capitol Hill café at 3 pm and 8 pm each day. This film "profiles the moving stories of thirteen couples whose lives were profoundly affected by Proposition 8 - the recent California ballot initiative that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry." We are psyched to have this important piece showing in our café, and it couldn't be more timely for our own state. Your chance to help us APPROVE REF 71 is just around the corner. Get those voting pens ready!

Speaking of marriage equality, remember when we had a little fundraiser called Legalize Gay Cupcakes? We kicked it off for Pride back in June, and sold tees, buttons, and stickers to raise money for Lambda Legal, those good folks who fight hard every day for marriage equality and equal rights across this great nation. Well, the gear has been sold and the tally is in. Thank you to everyone who helped us raise $1762 by buying a Legalize Gay Cupcakes tee, button, or sticker, and rockin' the message hard! Keep up the good work as we fight to get Ref 71 approved, so that ALL Washington families have rights they deserve.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Today and tomorrow are big days for health care reform! HCAN (Health Care for America Now) has marked Oct 5th and 6th as national call-in days to coincide with the beginning of the Senate merging the Kennedy HELP committee bill, a bill that includes a public option, with the Finance Committee bill, which does not include a public option.

What's all that mean? Well, recently, the big hold up in health care reform, (other than all the false information that people who prefer saving their huge bank accounts to saving human lives have been spreading,) has been the Senate Finance Committee. Those folks just could not agree on a bill. The main object of contention was, of course, the public option. They released their bill a couple weeks ago, and voila, no public option.

Not good, America. Just not good at all.

So, the bill they put forth now needs to merge with the bill put forth by the Kennedy HELP committee. Their bill does include a public option. And there is clearly only one way for this to go for the good of ALL Americans: we need the public option.

So pick up your phones, call your lawmakers, and say it like it is. America NEEDS a strong public option. We NEED to keep the private insurance giants in check. We cannot let them continue to turn astronomical profits by keeping people sick, or just letting them die. That is not the kind of people Americans are. That is not the country we want to live in. We need real reform. Real bad. Right NOW.

Now call this number and say just that: 1-877-264-4226

Thank our Washington Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, for fighting hard on behalf of all Washingtonians, and for sticking behind the public option, and encourage them to keep up the good fight on behalf of all Americans.

Senator Cantwell has drafted a petition on behalf of the public option. After fighting hard for it, and watching her committee exclude it from their bill, she is rallying the people to push it through. That is just what we love to see. Click HERE to sign the petition, and help Senator Cantwell in her fight for real health care reform.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Well, Morgan Clark is. Well, her mom is. She's been sending things to her daughter all week leading up to her 18th birthday this Sunday. Birthday Week Day #5's surprise...babycakes! She ordered some sweet little babycakes using our handy-dandy online order form, and had them delivered to her daughter at SPU. This is what they looked like when they arrived.

As you can imagine, the birthday girl loved them. And her mother, Kimberly, was pretty psyched about how EASY it is to get cupcakes delivered. She wrote us the sweetest little thank you note, and included the above photo.

So, get on board! Send someone special a sweet little treat right now by clicking HERE!

That's right party people! ReverbFest, Seattle Weekly's local music extravaganza is taking over Ye Olde Ballard as it does every October, and we can't wait! This year's line-up includes Erik Blood, Final Spins, KHV, The Maldives, Fatal Lucciauno, Visqueen, and many more. These local rockers will be taking the stage at all the Ballard hot spots, like the Sunset, the Tractor, and Conor Byrne, for a neighborhood-wide day of musical awesomeness.

Click HERE for all the details, including show times and locations. Click HERE to download a song from all 64 performers.

KILL-ER.

But wait! The neighborly funtimes do not stop at the venue doors! Ballard is spreading the love all OVER this weekend. How does a free babycake to wash down your coffee sound? Or how about $2 of a new album at our superfriends' Sonic Boom? Well it can all be yours. A bunch of Ballard businesses are offering free stuff and sweet deals this weekend if you show up wearing your Reverb wristband. Walk in rockin' that wristband at Cupcake Royale, and we'll hook you up with a free babycake with any coffee. Stroll on next door to Asher Anson, and get yourself lookin' good, for %10 off. And then mozy on across the street for $2 of a new album at Sonic Boom.

And the timing could not be more perfect. For you, that is. Why, you ask? Because as of yesterday, WE HAVE HARVEST FEST BABYCAKES! That means you can use your fancy wristband magic to get yourself a tiny taste of Caramel Apple orPumpkin Maple... on the house.

Everybody's favorite old-timey treat on a stick...in cupcake form! A delicious golden cake made with tart chunks of local Honey Crisp apples from Tiny's Organic Farm and sweet apple butter from Woodring Farms. Topped with our house made caramel buttercream, this apple-packed little slugger puts a pie to shame.

PUMPKIN MAPLEHometown: Corvalis, ORPosition: Next to a pumpkin latte

Two fall flavor all stars paired together in one ridiculously delicious cupcake. A lightly spiced pumpkin cake made with organic pumpkin from Stahlbush Island Farms is topped with an out-of-the-park maple cream cheese frosting. That's right: MAPLE. CREAM. CHEESE. It's new to the game, but this cake is already batting a thousand.

Our classic carrot walnut cake is new and improved now that it's made with fresh, local, organic carrots from Ralph's Organics! Topped with a rich cream cheese swirl, this veteran treat still has a lot of real good innings in it.

There you have it, the key players on the 5th Annual Cupcake Harvest Festival team. And, of course, leading the team to sweet success...Mr. Squirrel! It wouldn't be the Harvest Fest without Mr. Squirrel tees. We got 'em screened on organic cotton in men's, women's, and kid's sizes, plus onesies for all the little babycakes in your life.

So hurry on in and grab a bushel of tasty harvest cupcakes and a sweet new Mr. Squirrel tee.

OR click HERE to order 'em online...and you can even get 'em delivered! To your office, your best friend's office, your house, your apartment, your kids' school, wherever. (sorta)

And stay tuned for the November line-up, when Caramel Apple gets a pinch hitter...Cranberry Orange!

West Seattle is celebrating rock-n-roll this month with new art by Chona Kasinger. Titled Almost Famous, this series offers us "A glimpse into the incendiary world of rock and roll as seen by an underage live music photographer/writer." See more of her work here.

Learning from the loudest voice by Chris P.

One of our favorite artists will be showing in Madrona. Chris P. opens up The Cud That Chews Itself. To see more of his work, swing by our Madrona store or check out his website.

Untitled by Weston Jandacka

A beautiful and moody show by Weston Jandacka is now hanging in Ballard. "In this series of illustrated photographs, he offers up an ambiguous story to the viewer. Each image being individually it's own story while also playing a role in the overall continuity to the series. One can conjure up personal conclusions through these stage sets." See more of his work here.